These large doves appeared at my house on May 20, 2005 and are apparently here to stay. This introduced bird from Europe has swept across the country amazingly quickly from its escape location in the Bahamas, and was first seen in Nevada in 2001 along the Muddy River.
In Oasis Valley, collared doves are most common in spring and summer about houses, ranches, and towns. I notice a major exodus in October to the warmer lower valleys south of us, especially Death Valley 40 miles away. Here the doves congregate by the dozens in the date orchards of Furnace Creek Ranch for much of the winter. They sometimes begin to trickle back to our higher valley in January and February. I do not know if they have bred here yet, but a lot of singing fills the cottonwoods an elms in spring -- the low, often hoarse "whoa-WHOA, whoa-WHOA".
^At Furnace Creek Ranch date palm groves in Death Valley (Inyo County, California), October.
^In a tamarisk athel tree.
^Gregarious collared doves on a dead Date palm at Furnace Creek Ranch.
A friend told me about a Eurasian collared dove being attacked and killed by a Roadrunner in Death Valley!
^Eurasian collared dove in Oasis Valley, summer.
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